Nick Mendillo
Nick's wiki entry is far too long and reading past this point is completely optional. Before New York Cranston High School West At Cranston High School West in Cranston, RI, Nick dove into the school's already prestigious theatre program, under the direction of Nancy Vitulli (then Nancy Donegan). His freshman year, he played the guitar wielding hippy in the Vietnam War play Memorial. The play went on to win the RI Drama Fest and was performed at the New England Drama Festival in NH. In his sophomore year, he was writing sketches with his brother Andrew Mendillo et al in the sketch comedy group Inanimate Carbon Rod for the school's Christmas Show and '' 'Follies' '' - the annual Talent Show. Also that year, Nick was cast as Max Detweiler for the musical The Sound of Music. By his junior year, Nick had taken over Inanimate Carbon Rod, along with his friends, and was writing sketches for any staged event at the school. After certain supportive teachers retired, and sketches deemed "inappropriate" during ICR's hosting of that year's Holiday Show, their creative ideas and obscure sense of humor was quickly censored by new administration, and Inanimate Carbon Rod disbanded by the end of junior year. Also that year, Nick was a Host for the New England Drama festival and was cast as Demetrius in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Senior year, Nick was cast as Agwe, God of Water in the musical Once on this Island and decided staged musicals were "completely annoying" and choreography was "corny and lame". This poor attitude eventually lead to Nick being cast as Ezekial Cheever, the man with 4 lines, in his final CHSW stage performance The Crucible. Never again would Nick let his ego get the best of him, as he now makes a sincere effort to no longer poopoo others' creative ideas and expressions. In his junior and senior year Physics I and II courses, under the tutelage of Mr. Dale R. King, Nick and his friends created two 30-minute films "F=ma: The Search for Poseidon" and "P=F/A: The Search for Poseidon... Again". These educational action/adventure films will be available in 2012, remastered and re-edited by Nick. Unexpected Company In 2003, Nick formed RI's only long-form improv group Unexpected Company along with Andrew Mendillo, other UCB alumni Greg DeSantis and Justin Lang, and ImprovBoston's Brian Perry. The group performed at the Warwick Museum of Art every Sunday at 7:17pm. Nick left the group after 1 year due to verbal abuse by the group's namesake's creator. Upon return, he then quit again after a 2nd year to pursue music with his killer band Riley. When Riley broke up, Nick returned for a 3rd time. In 2008, Nick quit for a 3rd and final time, finding the group's new direction "not fun anymore". Unexpected Company has disbanded c.2010. College Nick joined The University of Rhode Island's theatre department in his 3rd year. His only mainstage role was that of Gordon Lowther in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in his 5th and final year. Aside from rare acting performances, Nick's other focus was on Directing. During these 3 years with URI Theatre, Nick directed freshman plays, and also wrote and directed the play Free Lollipops! under supervision of Alan Hawkridge. Nick also returned annually to Cranston High School West to assistant direct plays alongside Nancy Vitulli. He directed Justin Paige and Brittany Santoro in the play Next! and his direction on the play Bocon! led to CHSW winning their 3rd RI State Drama Festival in 5 years. His direction of young actor Kyle Boulay lead to Kyle winning the Outstanding Achievement in a Lead Role award. Yes. Nick's direction made him win. Not Kyle's acting ability. Hire Nick as your director today! New York After graduating in 2008, Nick's brother Andrew called him and said he had a room open up in his apartment in NYC. Nick had nothing else to do, so he decided on moving to New York to attend classes at Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. He has taken improv courses non-stop since then under the tutelage of Bobby Moynihan, Ari Voukydis, Kevin Hines, Will Hines, Shannon O'Neill, Anthony King, Silvija Ozols, Michael Delaney, Anthony Atamanuik, Jordan Klepper as well as workshops with Billy Merritt, Sean Conroy, and Ian Roberts. He has also taken Sketch writing courses with Caitlin Tegart and Adam Conover. Nick performs in the monoscene indie team TidbiT, who's had coaches Morgan Phillips, Nate Dern, Will Storie, Matt Fisher, Josh Patten, and Matt Cutler. He also performs in his 2-man improv duo Nick & Dom with Dom Manzolillo. In 2010, Nick created the webseries Cooking/Talk Show Show Us Your Dish! with Boris Khaykin, Marshall Stratton, and Jesse P-S. Guests are improvisers, actors, and comedians from the New York area who come on the show and teach their favorite recipes. Guests have included Don Fanelli, David Bluvband, Megan Neuringer, Chris Gethard, and Ilana Glazer. Nick is currently writing a one-man show and this Wiki page. Trivia *Nick is obsessed with Major League Baseball **His favorite team is the Boston Red Sox *Nick loves ska/punk and technical death/prog metal **His favorite bands are "Streetlight Manifesto" and "Between the Buried and Me" *Nick majored in quantum physics at URI for a week *Nick has been a musician, playing guitar, drums, bass, and singing since he was in the 5th grade. **His band Riley released 2 albums "Easy and Clean" and "Letters to Laconia" **His ska band The Ballpit Kings released an album called "Take it from Shelby" **His current solo project Retire the Side has an album "The Rare Cycle (2004)" *Nick loves constructing lists, and does so at his blog Mostly Lists *Refers to his group of friends since 3rd grade as "The Best Friends Club (bfc)" *His internet handle is Grevalt - a name given to him in his high school physics class by his bfc member Bobby DeLuca *This is all Shinfo Category:Uncategorized_pages